Don't ever stop
by NoelleG
Summary: With the war finished and Thanos dealt with, Bucky Barnes had all but given up with his life, the weight of his sins and his memories too much to bear. Until a badly injured, barely alive Hermione Granger literally fell into his arms, and proved him there were still things worth living for.
1. Chapter 1

She literally fell from the sky. A flash of light appeared out of nowhere, blinding Bucky for a moment. He felt something crash into him and send him to the ground. When the light disappeared and he was able to open his eyes again, there was a girl on his arms.

Badly injured, she was covered in blood _everywhere._ Her clothes were torn apart and full of what looked like ashes and dust. And, of course, blood. Her hair was in no better condition. She barely looked twenty, and Bucky's stomach clenched at the thought. What could possibly had happened to her, to end up in such state?

"What the hell?"

Hearing Steve curse never ceased to amaze Bucky. He rarely did. Bucky supposed, though, that the recent events were a good enough excuse for Steve to broke his own rule.

"She needs medical attention," Bucky answered.

"You think?" the irony in Steve's voice was obvious. "Give her to me."

Bucky had to make a great effort not to say ' _no_ ' to him. He didn't want to let go of the girl. But he knew he would probably injured her more if he tried to move from his position with her cradled in her arms. And he trusted Steve. So he did.

* * *

Tony was so surprised when he and Steve arrived at the Tower with the mysterious girl in their arms he wasn't even able to make a remark before Steve rushed past him, straight to the infirmary. Bucky followed close behind.

The doctor gasped in horror when she saw the girl. She ordered Steve to put her in the closest bed, and she started to work, ushering them out of the room.

Tony and Natasha were already waiting for them in the hallway.

"Who is she?" Natasha was the first to speak.

"We have no idea."

Tony was next. "Where did you find her?"

Bucky had been expecting that question. He and Steve exchanged a look, trying to figure out the best way to explain what they had just witnessed.

"She found us," Steve finally said. "She just… fell from the sky. _Literally_."

Tony blinked. "She fell from the sky," he repeated slowly. "As in… a breach opened in the sky and she just came through?"

That was probably a good theory, Bucky thought, even if they couldn't be sure. It also wouldn't be the weirdest thing neither of them had witnessed.

"There was a bright light," Steve offered. "When the light disappeared, she was there."

" _Where,_ exactly, is there?"

Bucky _blushed_. He didn't think he had blushed in almost a century. "On my lap."

He tried his best to remain expressionless when Tony laughed and Natasha arched her brows at him.

"There was a light on the sky, and that girl fell on your lap," Tony summed up. "A _teenage_ girl who looks like she came right out of Hell."

Steve nodded. "That's basically what happened, yes."

The doctor opened the door before any of them could say anything else. She wore a grim expression on her face, and Bucky got worried that maybe she hadn't make it.

"She's stable," she informed then.

Bucky breathed again. "Is she awake?"

"No. And I don't think she'll wake up in the next hours."

"We should call Wanda," Natasha told them when the doctor came back inside. "Have her look inside her head. We don't know if she's a threat."

Tony nodded. "Yes. Better find out _before_ she wakes up."

The strong grip of Steve's arm was the only thing that prevented Bucky to argue. And he really wanted to. He wanted to tell them how wrong that was, violate her privacy while she was unconscious, recovering from her injuries in a hospital bed.

Yet, he knew, logically, they were right. She looked innocent, but they had all seen enough to know that appearances could be deceiving. _Natasha_ looked innocent, for those who didn't know her. They had no way to know if that girl was a menace to them; and Wanda could provide them those answers.

He found himself praying she wasn't.

* * *

Wanda's expression was of sadness and sorrow when she got herself out of the girl's mind. She took a couple of steps back, and fell into Vision's arms, who hugged her immediately.

"Poor girl," she sobbed in his chest.

"What did you see, Wanda?" Vision tried to sooth her with gently strokes on her back.

Wanda shuddered. "Pain, torture, _war_." She separated herself from Vision and looked directly at Bucky and Steve. "She's like you."

For a moment, Bucky worried she was going to tell them she was enhanced, too. Steve's expression told him he was worrying about the same.

"A soldier," Wanda explained. "A soldier fallen out of time."

Everyone stilled.

"When you say out of time…" Steve was the first one to recover.

"Not as far away from home as you two, but _very_ far away from home."

Bucky considered it. "So she was frozen, too?"

The witch shook her head no. "She's a wand-wielder. Magic brought her here."

It was Natasha's gasp what put Bucky on alert. When he looked at the former spy, her eyes were widened in surprise and her entire body had tensed. She took a few steps towards the sleeping girl, and Bucky felt the urge to step between them.

"You said you saw a war?" Natasha asked Wanda, ignoring Bucky's move. The witch nodded. "We need to call Fury. I think I might know how she is."

"Is she dangerous?"

Natasha nodded. "Very much so. But not to us."

That seemed to ease Steve. "I'll call Sharon. She'll know how to find Fury."

* * *

Nick Fury _gaped_ at the sight of the girl. There was no better way to describe the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Director expression when he entered he the room, Sharon Carter and Maria Hill following closely behind.

"Is she who I think she is?" Natasha didn't waste time.

Fury nodded. "Hermione Granger."

Maria and Sharon gasped in surprise, which told Bucky that, whatever wand-wielders were, S.H.I.E.L.D. was very aware of them, and that girl in front of them –Hermione Granger, according to Fury- was very important among them.

"I thought she died." Maria looked at the girl.

"The whole world did," Fury explained. "And she died a hero."

"Well, she obviously _didn't_ die," Tony quipped.

Ignoring Tony's comment, Steve directed to Fury. "Wanda said she was a soldier."

A grim expression on his face, Fury nodded. "From a very young age," he told them. "She and her friends found themselves thrown into a war when they were barely teenagers."

"She can't be more than a teenager _now_ ," Steve exclaimed, surprised.

"She was nineteen when she went missing, the same day the war ended," Maria explained. "Her side won the war, but no one could find her then. The official version is that she disappeared during the battle. She was declared officially dead on the first anniversary of the end of the war."

Fury's expression changed. "Which was nineteen years ago today."

"You're right!" Maria exclaimed. "The war ended on May the second, in 1998. She was declared dead a year later, that same day."

"So she vanished from her own time in the middle of battle and landed in that very same day, just twenty years later?" Steve questioned, surprised.

Maria nodded. "What I can't understand is why _here._ The battle happened in Scotland. What could have happened to her to end up in New York?"

Director Fury sighed, looking suddenly very tired. "We need to contact Harry Potter. He was his best friend. He'll want to know we found her."

Steve took a step forward, putting himself between Hermione and the rest of them, a very determined expression in his face.

"I think we need to wait for her to wake up, and have _her_ decide what she wants to do."

"But Mr. Potter…" Fury tried to argue.

" _She_ is what matters now. She'll wake up twenty years away from home, probably completely terrified if the last thing she remembers is being in the middle of a battle," Steve explained, his expression clouded with memories. "That was probably just hours ago for her. If she wakes up and the first thing she sees is her best friend looking forty years old…"

"She'll freak out," Sharon agreed.

The explanation seemed to convince Fury. "What do you suggest we do, then, Captain?"

"You didn't handle my 'awaken' very well, Director," Steve narrowed his eyes at him. "So you probably should let _me_ handle this."

Natasha nodded. "He's right. If anyone here knows how she'll feel, it'll be Steve."

Bucky wanted to argue, wanted to tell them that _he_ wanted to be there when she woke up, even if he couldn't to understand why. That girl had fallen into his arms out of nowhere, and for the first time in months, Bucky felt like he had something to live for; even if it was just helping Hermione Granger come to terms with the new reality she'd found herself in.

He knew a few things about waking up in a world too far away from home, completely lost and alone.

"Bucky should stay, too," Steve said, then.

Bucky blinked, looking at Steve, confused. Had he voiced his thoughts aloud? Had Steve just _read_ his mind?

"Our experiences were different," Steve explained, "but still very similar to hers. He can help, too."


	2. Chapter 2

It took Hermione another whole day to wake up. Steve and Bucky took turns to wait next to her bed, not wanting her to wake up alone in the hospital room. During the long hours he spent looking at her, Bucky found himself wondering things about her.

Which colour her eyes were. How her voice sounded –Fury had told them she was British, so she probably had an accent. How she'd react. What she'd want to do once reality settled in.

When she finally opened her eyes, Steve had gone out of the room to speak to Sharon and Bucky was alone with her.

Her eyes were brown, he noticed. And looked terrified.

When she finally posed her eyes in him, she sat suddenly, clutching the sheets and trying to move as far away from him as possible. Bucky could hear her heart racing. He tried not to be offended by her reaction.

"Who are you?" she spoke, her accent obvious. "And where am I?"

Bucky stood up, his hands up in front of him, where she could see them. He saw the way her eyes flickered to his metal arm, and willed himself not to move it suddenly, not wanting to scare her even more.

"My name is Bucky," his voice sounded much more calmed that he felt. "You are in a hospital room, because you were badly injured when we found you."

"Where did you find me?"

 _On my lap_ , he wanted to answer, although it was probably not a good idea.

"In the park," he decided to say. "You were unconscious, and covered in blood. My friend and I brought you were."

She narrowed her eyes. " _Where_ is here?"

Bucky sighed, and prepared himself for her reaction. "New York."

To her credit, Hermione covered her shock pretty well. Her eyes widened a little, and he could hear her heart racing even more, but she didn't move, didn't say anything that gave away how incredibly confused and scared she felt.

"I'm… a little far away from home," she said, at last.

 _You have no idea_ , Bucky thought.

"When can I go? I should probably find a way to contact my friends, they must be worried."

His heart broke. How was he supposed to tell her that her friends had gone for the last nineteen years thinking she was dead?

"What day is it?" she asked.

 _Well, crap._ "May 3rd."

She relaxed a little. "Oh, well, it's only been a day, then. Thank Mer… Thank _God_."

Bucky stilled. Was he supposed to tell her then that it had been actually twenty years? He wished Steve were there, he was probably better suited to explain that than he was. Steve wasn't there, though, and that girl deserved to know the truth.

 _Here goes nothing._ "It's May 3rd… of 2018."

Hermione blinked. Then tilted her head to the side. Then blinked again.

"May 3rd… of 2018," she repeated. "We are in the twenty-first century."

Bucky would have laughed, had not the situation been so delicate. "We are."

"I'm in New York, in 2018," she stated again.

"You are," Bucky nodded.

She narrowed her eyes at him, then. And Bucky found himself feeling a little wary of that look. It reminded him a little too much at the look Natasha gave him or any of the other Avengers before lashing out at them.

" _You_ look like you're expecting me to freak out," she accused him. "So you probably know I should _not_ be in New York. In 2018."

He wondered how many more times she was going to repeat that.

"Are you going to freak out?" Bucky asked, lamely.

Hermione blinked again. "I don't know."

"I know your name is Hermione Granger," he admitted. "And I know the last time you were seen was in Scotland, in 1998."

She nodded. "I've been missing for twenty years."

"I'm sorry," he offered.

"Are you… like me?"

Bucky knew what she was asking. "I don't have a wand."

"But you know about wizards and witches."

"Not until yesterday. You… you are taking this surprisingly well."

Hermione sighed. "Sadly, this is not the weirdest thing that's even happened to me."

Bucky could totally understand that.

"I'm sorry," he repeated.

The door opened then. Bucky froze, his eyes fixated in Hermione, worried the sudden appearance of another person would finally make her snap. She stayed still, though, her eyes on the door.

Steve's mouth hanged comically opened when he realized Hermione had finally woken up, and he stopped on his tracks, looking at her as if he didn't know quite well what to do next.

 _So much for knowing what to do in these situations,_ Bucky thought.

"Punk, this is Hermione Granger," he finally broke the silence. "Hermione, this is my friend Steve Rogers. He was with me when we found you."

Steve cleared his throat. "A pleasure, ma'am."

Hermione arched her brows. "I'm from the nineties."

The comment broke the tension, and made Bucky laugh. Steve blushed, but laughed at the comment as well.

"He's not," he explained Hermione.

Something seemed to click in Hermione's mind then. She looked at Steve, her mouth as opened as his had been before.

"Steve Rogers?" she asked him. "As in… _the_ Steve Rogers?"

Steve nodded, blushing even more. "You know about our history?"

"I wasn't born in the magical world," Hermione explained. "I went to a non-magical school for a few years, and I studied World War 2. You crashed your plane into the ice."

"And I stayed there, frozen, for nearly seventy years."

Hermione winced. "That's… a long time."

"I'm sorry you know so well how it feels like," Steve told her, clearly sensing he'd already explained to her the situation.

Hermione turned to look at him, then. "You said your name's Bucky."

"Bucky Barnes," he confirmed.

Her eyes widened. "James Buchanan Barnes." Bucky nodded in confirmation. "You fell from a train."

"I lived."

"You were frozen, too?"

He flinched. "Sort of."

Hermione seemed to understand she'd touch a delicate topic, because she didn't ask any more questions about it. He was immensely thankful for it.

"Is that the reason you're the ones here?"

They both nodded.

"You don't need to make any decisions now," Steve assured her. "But you might want to think what you want to do next."

Hermione sighed. "You mean if I want to contact my friends?" Steve nodded. "What's the official version of what happened to me?"

"You disappeared on May 2nd, 1998. The looked for you for a whole year, and you were declared officially dead on May 2nd, 1999."

"How did…" she gulped. "How did the war end?"

Steve smiled. "Your side won."

Hermione sagged on the bed, small tears gathering around her eyes. "He did it. He finally killed the bastard."

The urge to approach her and offer his comfort was strong, but Bucky forced himself to stay where he was. She didn't know him, had no reason to trust him, even if she seemed comfortable in his presence. He couldn't just go to her and hug her, much that he wanted to, to his immense surprise.

"What's the last thing you remember?" he asked her.

Hermione closed her eyes, trying to remember. "I was… fighting. I got separated from my friend, and there were two wands pointing at me," she explained. "The spells… they _crashed_ into each other, and then they hit me. I remember a light so bright it blinded me, and then… nothing."

"There was a light when you appeared here, too," Steve told her. "When the light was gone, you were already on Buck's arms."

Hermione's eyes widened. "I fell into your arms?"

He'd never wanted to kill Steve so much in his life. "Yeah."

"How embarrassing," she blushed. "I'm sorry."

Steve seemed to be trying very hard to contain his laughter. Bucky didn't think even the Winter Soldier would have been so happy to kill the man as _he_ wanted to, in that moment.

"Don't worry about it," Bucky calmed her.

Steve sobered up quickly. "About your friends…"

Quickly gaining her composure, Hermione stayed silent a few minutes, thinking about Steve's question. To any person, reaching out to old friends and reunite with them would be the obvious answer. He and Steve knew better, though. Sometimes a little time to process changes on your own before been subjected to them in the form of your past coming back to show you just how much you've lost was needed.

"Can I… take a little more time?" she asked finally. "I want to see my friends, obviously, but…"

"You can take all the time you need," Steve promised her.

She nodded, smiling thankfully. "Am I in a hospital?"

"You're in Stark Tower," Steve explained. "We live here, and you can stay for as long as you want. There's someone who would like to meet you, though."

She looked at him, confused.

"Not someone from your past," he clarified. "My… boss, sort of. He's the one who told us who you are. He works for S.H.I.E.L.D., I don't know if you know what that is."

Hermione nodded. "I've read about it. S.H.I.E.L.D. knows about us, too, so I guess that makes sense."

"You don't have to meet him right away," Bucky intervened. "You still need to recover from your injuries, and probably have some rest. He can wait a few days to meet you."

Steve nodded. "Of course."

Hermione seemed relieved at that. "Thank you. Are you… are you sure I can stay here?"

"Totally sure," Steve confirmed. "My friend owns the building."

" _Stark_ Tower," she exclaimed. "As in Howard _Stark_? Is he…?"

Bucky shook his head. "He's dead," he winced, remembering _how_ he died. "His son, Tony, is the owner of the building."

She nodded in understanding. And she looked suddenly very tired.

"Get some rest," Bucky told her. "We'll come back later to see how you're doing. You're safe here. No one will bother you."

"I… I could use some sleep," she admitted. "Thank you."

He and Steve left the room when Hermione laid back on the bed, preparing herself to sleep again. When he closed the door behind him, Steve was already looking questioningly at him.

"You okay, Buck?"

"Yeah. Just… I'm a little worried that she reacted so… _well._ "

Steve nodded. "I was expecting her to be in the middle of a panic attack," he admitted. "I almost had one, and I _knew_ when I crashed my plane that there was a possibility I wouldn't see my friends ever again. She was just there, fighting with her friends, and suddenly… gone. You're worried that she hasn't fully understand what's happened yet?"

"I'm a little more worried about the fallout when she _does_."

He just hoped he could helped her. He had no idea why, but helping Hermione Granger was suddenly the only thing he could think about.

And her eyes. They were brown and big. And he liked them quite a lot.

* * *

 **A/N. Shock makes people react in funny ways. It's also a slow process. There will be more to it.**

 **The length of the chapters will vary. These first two were a little introductory, so I didn't want to put much information into them, but the rest of them will be longer.**


	3. AN

**Sorry this is not an update. It is really hard for me to write this note, as I just arrived to this world of fan fiction (as a writer), but I find myself dreading to turn on my computer every morning, or check my emails, out of fear of what I might find in my Inbox.**

 **When I started writing, I never once thought on doing it for reviews, comments or anything of the sort. I wrote because I love to write. Because I've read so much that I asked myself: why not try it?**

 **I've been reading FF for years, always as a Guest. I've often left reviews in stories I loved. And I've found myself criticizing some other stories. Never to the author, but to myself. I would never presume to be entitled to reach to an author and tell them 'your work is bad, your work does not deserve to be here'.**

 **Those are the kind of comments I've received on my stories. Not all of the comments, mind you. There have been some pretty amazing comments, and that's brought a smile to my face, even if the comment next, a pretty nasty one, would cloud that happiness.**

 **I never wrote for the reviews, but it pains me to admit I'm going to stop writing because of them. Some might think 'just active the moderate reviews option and delete them'. Yes, I thought so myself.**

 **But then, I also thought: I'm doing this for me, because I like writing. Why do I have to live with this kind of anxiety every day? Why do I have to let those negative comments torment me?**

 **Maybe this is drastic, and maybe I'm a coward. But I just don't think it's worth it. Life and art should be precious, appreciated. Not brought down. I don't think I want to stay in a community when that happens on a daily basis.**

 **I'm sorry. Thank you for your time. Keep reading, keep writing, and please be nice to each other.**

 **All my love,**

 **Noelle.**


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